OECD DAC Criteria for Development Evaluation Training Course

Course overview

Development and humanitarian organisations are increasingly required to show not only what they delivered, but whether interventions were relevant, coherent with other actors’ efforts, effective, efficient, impactful and sustainable. Yet evaluation teams often apply the OECD DAC Criteria as a checklist rather than as a structured basis for evaluation questions, evidence collection, judgement and recommendations. This can produce weak evaluation matrices, unsubstantiated ratings, stakeholder disagreement and reports that do not support programme or funding decisions.

This five-day course equips participants to apply the 2019 OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria—relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability—to real development and humanitarian evaluations. Participants translate criteria into evaluative questions, develop indicators and evidence needs, construct a theory of change, design mixed-methods data collection, assess contribution and triangulate findings. The course also addresses cross-cutting considerations including equity, gender equality, human rights, conflict sensitivity, localisation and unintended effects.

Teaching combines expert-led instruction with worked examples from development and humanitarian portfolios, small-group design studios and critique sessions. Participants build an OECD DAC-aligned evaluation package for a realistic programme case: a scoping note, evaluation matrix, sampling and data-collection plan, evidence-to-judgement framework, findings structure and recommendation tracker. This deliverable can be adapted for a forthcoming evaluation, terms of reference review or internal quality-assurance process.

The course is suited to professionals who commission, manage, conduct, review or use evaluations in bilateral agencies, NGOs, UN entities, foundations, humanitarian organisations and implementing partners.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Translate the six 2019 OECD DAC Criteria into context-specific evaluation questions and judgement criteria
• Construct an OECD DAC-aligned evaluation matrix linking questions, indicators, evidence sources, methods and responsibilities
• Develop a theory of change that identifies assumptions, causal pathways, risks and plausible contribution claims
• Design mixed-methods data collection plans using key informant interviews, document review, surveys and participatory techniques
• Assess relevance, coherence and effectiveness using explicit rubrics and triangulated evidence
• Analyse efficiency, impact and sustainability while accounting for cost, unintended effects and system-level change
• Apply equity, gender equality, human rights and conflict-sensitivity lenses within evaluation design and analysis
• Produce evidence-based findings, conclusions and actionable recommendations in an evaluation report structure

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning Managers — who design and quality-assure organisational evaluation systems
• Evaluation Managers — who commission consultants and need defensible terms of reference, matrices and deliverables
• Programme Managers — who must use evaluation evidence to adapt portfolios and demonstrate results to funders
• Independent Evaluators and Consultants — who need to apply the OECD DAC Criteria consistently across assignments
• Donor and Foundation Programme Officers — who review evaluation quality and make evidence-informed funding decisions
• Humanitarian Response Managers — who assess relevance, coordination, outcomes and sustainability in complex operating environments

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with project or programme cycle management, results frameworks and basic monitoring concepts such as outputs, outcomes, indicators and data sources. Experience contributing to an evaluation, baseline, review, donor report or learning exercise is strongly recommended. Participants should be comfortable reading programme documents and working with tables in Microsoft Excel or equivalent spreadsheet software. No advanced statistics, specialist evaluation software or prior experience as an external evaluator is required. The course explains OECD DAC terminology and provides templates, but it moves quickly from concepts into applied evaluation design and evidence-based judgement.

Training methodology

Instructor-led sessions introduce each OECD DAC criterion through practical decision questions, annotated evaluation extracts and structured templates. Participants work in groups on a development or humanitarian programme case, progressing from a theory of change and evaluation matrix to methods, evidence rubrics and report findings. Short critique rounds test whether questions are evaluable, sources are credible and conclusions follow from evidence. The final application workshop enables each participant to adapt the course tools to an active or planned evaluation in their own organisation.

Course outline

Day 1: Framing OECD DAC evaluations

• Purpose and evolution of the 2019 OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria
• Distinguishing monitoring, review, audit, research and evaluation
• Evaluation purpose, intended users and decision-use planning
• The six criteria: relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability
• Theory of change, causal pathways and critical assumptions
• Evaluation scope, evaluability and proportionality
• Stakeholder analysis, participation and evaluator independence

Workshop: Participants analyse a programme case and produce a stakeholder map, evaluability scan and draft theory of change.

Day 2: Questions, matrices and evidence design

• Converting OECD DAC criteria into evaluative questions
• Defining judgement criteria, benchmarks and performance rubrics
• Evaluation matrix architecture and traceability
• Indicators, proxy measures and evidence gaps
• Document review protocols and evidence inventories
• Key informant interview guides and focus group design
• Sampling strategies for qualitative and quantitative evidence

Workshop: Participants build an evaluation matrix that links criterion-specific questions to indicators, sources, methods and judgement standards.

Day 3: Applying relevance, coherence and effectiveness

• Assessing relevance against needs, priorities and changing context
• Analysing internal and external coherence
• Testing effectiveness across outputs, outcomes and target groups
• Equity, gender equality and human rights in evaluative questions
• Conflict sensitivity, localisation and do-no-harm considerations
• Triangulation across monitoring data, interviews and secondary evidence
• Data quality assessment and evidence confidence ratings

Workshop: Using a humanitarian response case, participants rate relevance, coherence and effectiveness with a completed evidence-confidence rubric.

Day 4: Assessing efficiency, impact and sustainability

• Efficiency questions on cost, timeliness, delivery models and resource use
• Cost analysis options: cost-efficiency, cost-effectiveness and value for money
• Impact pathways, unintended effects and systems change
• Contribution analysis and alternative explanations
• Sustainability dimensions: financial, institutional, environmental and social
• Exit strategies, ownership and capacity transfer
• Managing uncertainty, attribution limits and evaluative claims

Workshop: Participants develop a contribution analysis and sustainability assessment for a livelihoods programme, identifying plausible claims and evidence limits.

Day 5: From findings to useable evaluation products

• Synthesising evidence into findings, conclusions and recommendations
• Writing criterion-based findings with claim-evidence reasoning
• Recommendation prioritisation, feasibility and ownership
• Management responses and recommendation tracking systems
• Evaluation report structure and OECD DAC quality standards
• Communicating uncertainty, limitations and dissenting views
• Applying course templates to live organisational evaluations

Workshop: Participants present an OECD DAC-aligned evaluation package and produce a 90-day application plan for an evaluation or quality-assurance task.

Tools & standards covered

OECD DAC Evaluation Criteria (2019), OECD DAC Quality Standards for Development Evaluation, Microsoft Excel, KoboToolbox

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions